Drive

Role models are important for us psychologically from a young to when we are older. They are people who we can look up to, base our ideology on and respect as a ‘bench mark’ for how we proceed in our personal growth and development. When we are children we look up to fictional characters like Superman, who is a great role model for developing children as he’s never shown in a bad light, he doesn’t really have character flaws and he stands for upstanding morality which you can’t fault. As an adult though, Superman is lacking depth as he’s fictional and doesn’t have a standing in the real world for an aspiring adult to follow, especially in the world of business (maybe Iron Man might be a better role model!).

In business, have a think about your professional role models and other global business leaders who you can look up to and their successful endeavours. People like Richard Branson who are arguably highly-successful business people are great role models who seem trustworthy, resourceful, enthusiastic and focussed on results. With these high-flyers who have amazingly successful careers, they all seem to have the same quality to each other: drive. A ‘dig-your-heels-in’, steadfast resilience with a little extra ‘umph’ that keeps them focussed until they see the result they want.

A psychology professor by the name of Angela Duckworth at the University of Pennsylvania became aware that her students who were performing higher weren’t always the cleverest of the group but it was the students who had something extra about them. The more successful students felt motivated to work harder despite having to face hurdles in their way until their dreams became reality. Duckworth noted that it was a student who approached achievement as a marathon showed their advantage was stamina, tended to be the more successful.

The question is how can one develop this ‘drive’ is you don’t already have it? While the development can be challenging, it is possible to train oneself to have more perseverance in the race.

Here are some tips on how:

Engage Enthusiasm. Passionate people pursue potential profit! If you have a passion for what you desire you are more likely to carry on through the obstacles to achieve success.

Exceptional Experienced Examples. Remember our role models? Have ‘exceptional’ ones.Finding someone who you respect who can assist you along the way and who you can learn from is a great way to continue as they can keep you accountable to your goals.

Go With Your Gut. Trusting your instincts shouldn’t be overrated! Always look at every angle when making decisions

Risk Ready? The successful people we look up to didn’t get where they are without taking risks. Without the risk, there is no success.

Total Tenacity. Any kind of pioneering will have adversity so expect lots of it. Setbacks will probably come but don’t let that stop you – keep trying. Learn from adversity then move forward. Develop resilience and prove that it just makes you stronger.

Apple giant Steve Jobs was a man with drive. Steve knew that time is limited and isn’t worth living somebody else’s life. He didn’t let the status quo keep him where he was and he didn’t let others opinions stop him from achieving his goals and he would actively encourage people to, ‘have the courage to follow your heart and intuition.’

Think about the goals you want to achieve that you’ve had in your mind, maybe even for years, and think about the steps you need to take to meet them. So many successful business people around the world haven’t seen overnight success and they’ve developed their ‘drive’ is a process of small steps of digging in through routine and in time it becomes a habit. Power through those hurdles and continue to strive for success.

Our Chamber exists to help local business thrive, develop and engage together. We believe that together we can achieve way more than we could have dreamed of alone. Join us and help us create an even more prosperous business community in Newton Abbot and district.